Where are the narrow doors in your life? 

Narrow doors.  We run into them every so often, (Less now that more places are handicapped accessible...)  Elevators in old buildings.  Airline bathroom doors. Old closets in the country.  Doors that are accessible, but that take a bit of patience to negotiate.  Especially if you are carrying something.  Especially if you are weighed down by something.  So, when that anonymous person in the crowd shouts out 'the question' that gets asked in every religious circle - who gets in and who is shut out, Jesus uses an image that his listeners, and to a lesser extent, you and I are familiar with.  The narrow door. 

Narrow doors.  They are open, but take labor to get through.  Some exegetes speak of a narrow gate in Jerusalem - tall, thin, but a fully loaded camel would not be able to negotiate it's way through.  It would have to be stripped of it's possessions to make it's way through.  And now, we begin to have a hint at what Jesus is asking, the one who just told us: it would be easier for a camel to pass through a needles eye than a rich one to enter into heaven. 

Strive to enter through the narrow door.  Contrary to the popular belief that God will love us into salvation even if we do nothing to respond to him - Jesus says - Many shall try and not have the strength.  Though salvation is offered - it doesn't come by magic. It takes commitment.  It takes work.  It takes wriggling and struggle and preparation.

During the deconstructing of the pipes at the Newman Center, I had the opportunity to boldly go where no director of the Newman center has gone - into the crawl space under the floor of the front office.  Only accessible once you knocked a hole in the bricks.  Very narrow space.  It was difficult to position the ladder correctly to be in position to get in and then back out.  Once inside, it was a very narrow space.  Any excess baggage would have made it impossible.  (Heck, any excess pounds on this frame...and it would not have worked.  It taught me about narrow doors - you bring only what is necessary. Only what is needed. 

Strive to enter through the narrow door.  It is open, but narrow.  Narrow doors - we know them in our own lives.
* Students - new to a semester - and so much social activity to have - how do we find the narrow door that allows us to study and play and work out and live a healthy, fully human life?
* Those in recovery at Droste - you know how narrow the door is, don't you.  How difficult it is to stay on the program.  How much energy it takes.  In many ways, you are ahead of the game in today's gospel - because you know about narrow doors, and the choices that you need to stay on the path...
* in relationships: it is so easy to grow slack in our time, to take the other for granted.  They'll always be there.  They'll always love me.  But I stop revealing who I am in my thoughts and struggles and joys and life...  though the door is open - it remains narrow...
* With our God:  I go to mass on Sunday - I eat and drink at your eucharistic table - isn't that enough?   Aren't those the dues I have to put in to 'be assured' of my place?  Today's gospel tells us - it is not enough to know Jesus by name, to have eaten at the table.  It is about acting and doing and living as he would have us.  How narrow is that door for you and I? 
* Narrow doors of opportunites to grow that we don't seize - a chance to read an article, to go on a day of prayer, to spend a quiet moment in prayer  - Try to enter through the narrow door...

How narrow are the doors in your life?  The ones that you face - not anyone else.  For the same Jesus who bid us to walk into the flames of self giving, self emptying love, invites us to walk through our narrow doors, unencumbered by distraction, by inattention, and with full purpose on the path that is before us.

Concretely:
Confession? Areas where you get stuck - relationships/study/work - places where you feel the squeeze...  and then ask for the strength to walk through...

The good news of today:  The door is open. It is possible.  It can be walked. BUT, it is narrow.  Live this week, caring only for that which will allow you to pass through...